Population Ecology

These flashcards cover key concepts of population ecology, including definitions, important factors influencing populations, and the significance of studying ecological interactions.

What is ecology?

The study of interactions between organisms and their environments.

What are the levels of study in ecology?

Individuals, Populations, Communities, Ecosystems.

Define population in ecology.

A group of organisms of the same species living in a particular geographic region.

What is population ecology?

A subfield of ecology that focuses on populations of organisms of a species and how they interact with the environment.

Why do we study populations instead of individuals in ecology?

Individuals are too variable, so studying populations allows us to observe commonalities between them.

What are density-dependent factors?

Factors that limit population size based on the density of the population, such as food supply and habitat availability.

What are density-independent factors?

Factors that affect populations regardless of their size, often weather-based like natural disasters.

What does carrying capacity refer to?

The maximum number of individuals that an environment can support without detrimental effects.

What is logistic growth?

Population growth that is gradually reduced as the population nears the environment's carrying capacity.

What is an ecological footprint?

A measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems, representing the amount of land and sea needed to regenerate resources consumed and absorb waste.